


Concerto

by Anarchyinplasma



Series: Semblances: A study [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-17 17:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5880301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anarchyinplasma/pseuds/Anarchyinplasma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at team STRQ in a single situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Speed

**Author's Note:**

> I'll write each of STRQ in this same fight at a later date. For right now though, enjoy Summer.

Summer Rose is very very fast. It's a fact of her existence really, she gets antsy, can't stay still, needs to move and run. But her semblance is her most treasured thing. 

She surprises people in battle, the klaxon will go, signaling the start of a match, then the sonic boom she generates completely drowns out the starting pistol. She puts a foot forward, then the ground cracks, and her opponent barely even feels a rapier passing gracefully through their defense as she scores a first hit.

But her proudest moment when it comes to her semblance is STRQ’s first vytal festival appearance. They have a number of strategies planned, but the opening definitely plays to their strengths.

Apart from TaiYang, their team doesn't have much in the way of brute force, nor can they take a hit well; sure, Qrow can take a couple, but only Tai can shrug off large amounts of firepower. 

So instead they fight with misdirection, and Summer is the lynchpin of the initial split. She starts running immediately, then accelerates, pushing her semblance to the absolute limit and hitting Mach 2 right as she pushes through the middle of the enemy team; splitting the ground and creating a pressure wave that forces them apart, their lightest member flying into the trees. The heavy hitter stands his ground, but Tai is on him. Keeping him distracted. There's a scream from the trees, and the board notifies her the Branwen siblings have made short work of the glass cannon she zoned out earlier.

The team leader is thinking, she can see the wheels turning in the other womans head. Trying to figure out if there's a way she can outmanoeuvre Raven and remove Summer from the equation. Sadly, she can't; because Qrow is on her, swinging in a controlled arc, like the rest of his fighting style it's a highly calculated movement, made to look erratic and overwrought. But Qrow is always in control; and it shows.

Summer darts through the opening he created for her, creating a thin sliver on her opponent as Raven dismantles the second in command utterly, and moves to help. Then there's a mighty roar and TaiYang’s opponent comes flying from the treeline their fight moved to, Qrow pivots on his heel as Raven slices across, their sibling communication honed by years of constant training and development. As the unfortunate souls aura is depleted Summer abuses the miss-focus of the leader to score the final hit. The crowd roars thunderously, and STRQ leave the field. While the opposing team pick themselves up and the heavy hitter relocates his shoulders. Summer grinning from ear to ear under her hood.


	2. Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tai is the oddball of STRQ in most respects, but he's something they certainly couldn't do without.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have no idea what Tai's semblance is, so I got a bit creative. Enjoy.

Tai’s semblance is surprisingly passive, always on, there isn't a fixed point where it activates, as most people would assume, but it's always taking energy in, redistributing it to any part of his body, it's why he appears so stifled unless he has someone to fight; and consequently somewhere to release all his pent up energy.

He knows Summer is the tactical genius of the team, though she'd never admit it. Similarly, under most conditions Qrow can deal more damage than he can, and certainly in a more controlled manner. Raven can utterly dismantle an opponent, leaving them with no idea what will happen, and utterly broken before she deals the final blow.

But Tai can take a beating, and he's a good distraction, he can keep even the hardest hitting opponents busy for hours, then fire them right at his team, so they can do the work while he reengages.

Fighting with misdirection is STRQ's main plan, but Tai doesn't mind, he gets to work off any undue stress in the meantime.

Summer charges first, shooting off to the opposite side of the arena before turning to reengage, the glass cannon the enemy are pinning all their hopes on is bodily flung 20 metres to the tree line, and Raven slips through the ether after him, Qrow does similarly, and Tai sprints forward to engage their heavyweight, through a lot of subtle movement he maneuvers their fight to the treeline, away from the central flat ground. His opponent is dishing out strikes like nothing else but Tai is happy to take it. 

After the board shows the brother and sister that make their team so effective have made mincemeat of the glass cannon Summer managed to misplace. Raven moves to the second in command and Qrow moves to help Summer in the central stage, Raven joins them once the second has been dealt with and Tai takes his chance. There's a roar from his opponent as he let's lose a powerful strike. But Tai simply meets his fist with his own and takes active control of his semblance.

Every scrap of energy that has been channelled into him since the fight began is released in a single punch. His opponent is picked up and bodily flung 15 or so metres before Raven and Qrow finish him with a perfect double attack.

Then the fight ends. STRQ walk off with another victory, and Tai starts to get his energy back from the pats on the back Qrow gives him, and watches in smug satisfaction as the opponent he previously fought gets up and relocates his shoulders.


	3. Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look at Raven, it took me a couple of days to come up with a creative semblance interpretation. But here's my take on it. Enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found this odd to do, I'll probably write another fic on her first time using it soon. The other world is something I reckon could be made quite interesting, so if by some miracle anyone else wants to try their hand at it, go ahead.

Raven’s semblance garners a lot of attention from the staff at beacon, mostly because she refuses to divulge how it works. It's well within her rights of course, and thanks to his own semblance; Ozpin, at least, understands her plight and knows not to push. 

Only her team know, and of them only her brother has experienced it first hand, he knew why she looked at the world the way she did, and while he didn't agree with it, he could certainly sympathise.

Qrow describes Raven using her semblance as being shifted “ninety-degrees to reality”. It's a landscape like no other. Twisted and impossible, it defys all logic. And yet Raven knows instinctively what location corresponds to the real world, and she appears where she wasn't with no time taken at all.

She has a well earned reputation for being able to completely break down and dismantle an opponent. Her semblance is quick as it is unusual, she can step back into reality halfway through a strike and disappear while her blade is cutting through an opponents armour, taking it with her through the rift.

\-----

Raven knows her part in STRQ's plan, as soon as Summer zips off she grabs her brothers arm and then, as usual, reality breaks. She walks to where the woods would be. Though instead they are hunched twisted trees made from metaphor and little else. Then reality fractures again and they're back, two sets of eyes scanning the shrubbery for their target.

Qrow finds him, and they destroy his guard together and eliminate him. Then Raven disappears and comes back right next to their opponents second in command. She's already halfway through a strike that he tries to block; at the last second she reappears behind him, taking a massive chunk from his aura bar and disappearing again. She comes back slashing upwards, then to his direct right slashing downwards, again ruining his aura, it drops below sixteen and he's eliminated. 

Finally she reappears next to Qrow on an unspoken signal, already halfway through a devastating pivot attack. Tai's opponent is quickly brought into submission and then it's four-on-one. Their leader is quickly bested by Summer's speed. As they leave the field the glass cannon wonders where his spaulder has gone. Until it falls out of the sky and hits his head, a three inch deep sword gash running diagonally across it.


	4. Under Lock and Key

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He never uses it. For one very good reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after seeing the full form of his scythe in today's episode (sorry non-sponsors) I wrote this. I already mentioned Qrow's parts in STRQ's match in Raven's chapter, so I just kept this to his semblance. Digital cookie to anyone who knows what his semblance is based on (I.e. if you get the reference). Enjoy.
> 
> P.S. I made up the weapon name, it just sounded right.

Qrow has only used his semblance once, Magnanimous Scorn is the only thing he needs to be proficient at killing anything, no matter how big or powerful. Then of course there's the danger factor.

It changes him, his physical form, his attributes, and sure increased speed, strength, and a healing factor are all awesome. But the price is never worth it, and overwhelming bloodlust is that horrific price. His semblance only activated the first time under dire circumstances. He's 15 and has just finished his final year at signal; and then they fire at him. The enhanced bullet punches right through his chest, his heart is vaporised, but he's still standing, in disbelief at what just happened. And the nine inch diameter hole in his chest is so cold, then it's hot, so so hot, burning, scalding, incandescent and then he hears a voice; a deep, rasping voice from his very soul calling “Power… Give me more... power!” and the devil inside him is unbound at last.

Raven would later confide to him that he looked in that moment as though he belonged in the world her semblance accessed. Foreboding and lethal. His chest is whole, his eyes like burning pools of fire, his hair is swept back,the long torn cape at his back flutters gently in an unseen wind and his body is something else entirely.

Leathery skin for his palms, thick, tough, and black as night. Scales for the black mask on his face, or maybe it is his face, he can't tell anymore. His new twin horns jutting skyward. His clothes change slightly too, no hole in his shirt, and a bisected Branwen crest over the centre. Leather boots made of a rippling black hide that sheen with a rainbow hue as he walks towards his target.

Magnanimous Scorn is in his hand instantly, fully unfurled and with the designs on the blade black as death. The blade itself drips his own blood as it fell from his previous wound. His shooter is stumbling backwards away from the devil in front of him. Fear showing in unbridled amounts as Qrow, if he is even Qrow anymore, strides toward him, unflinching and unhindered by further shots then his figure blurs, and the shooter is so much blood and ribbons on the wind.

Qrow stands to his full height; obsidian horns curling skyward, then his whole body goes blindingly white, like raw burning magnesium and he's back; collapsing onto the ground face first with a hole in his shirt and a pristine chest. Finally everything goes black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As an aside, I wrote a quasi-followup to this called Dust to Dust. If anyone is interested.


End file.
